Formed in 2011, Made.com offered affordable high-end furniture online with the ambition to one day rival Swedish furniture giant Ikea. Fast forward 11 years and the British brand, which excelled during the pandemic and was valued last year at £775 million, has collapsed.
A last-ditch attempt to rescue the company by a former owner of Made.com was rejected, showing that even rising stars aren’t immune to the spiralling costs of living and doing business. This comes at a difficult time for the retail industry, with British clothing company Joules also collapsing recently.
In 2020, Made.com sales hit £315 million, a 30% increase from the previous year, as COVID-era lockdowns saw people spruce up their surroundings with online purchases. A further 63% sales boost over the first three months of 2021 convinced the company to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in June 2021. At this time, the idea that the company could fail just 18 months later was inconceivable. So, what went wrong?
